Italy and Greece confirm hostages killed in Nigeria

[NBCNews]

  Sunday Alamba / APPeople read local newspapers with the headline 'We've killed 7 foreign hostages' on a street in Kano, Nigeria, on March 10.  By Gavin Jones and Renee Maltezou, ReutersROME/ATHENS — Seven foreign hostages kidnapped last month by a Nigerian Islamist group from  a construction firm's compound have been killed, the Italian and Greek Foreign  Ministries said on Sunday.

Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansaru said on  Saturday it had killed the hostages seized on February 7 in the northern state  of Bauchi because of attempts by Nigerian and British forces to free them.

It published grainy photos purporting to show the bodies of a Briton, an  Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers snatched from the Lebanese firm  Setraco.

Foreign governments had not been able to confirm the killings  until Sunday. Italy and Greece denied any attempt to rescue them had been made  by any of the governments involved. Nigeria had no confirmation of the killings.

"Our checks conducted in co-ordination with the other countries  concerned lead us to believe that the news of the killing of the hostages seized  last month is true," an Italian Foreign Ministry statement said.

"There  was never any military attempt to rescue the hostages by any of the governments  concerned," it said, adding the president had sent his condolences to the  Italian's family.

Security has become a top concern for oil and  infrastructure companies across the region after gunmen loyal to al Qaeda's  north African franchise stormed an Algerian gas plant in January. Up to 37  foreigners died during an attempted rescue mission by Algerian forces.

The risk posed by Islamists across west and north Africa has greatly  increased since France sent troops to Mail to wrest control of its northern  territory from al Qaeda linked rebels.

Islamist groups have also spread  across the north and centre of Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, where they  have become the main security threat after an amnesty ended an uprising by armed  groups in the oil-producing southeastern Niger Delta.

Britain said it  was "likely" the Briton was killed along with the six others, with Foreign  Secretary William Hague saying: "This was an act of cold-blooded murder, which I  condemn in the strongest terms."

Greece confirmed its citizen was dead,  adding the Foreign Ministry had informed his family. Lebanon declined to  comment.

Nigerian authorities continued to say they had no evidence,  after doubting the veracity of the Ansaru statement on Saturday.

"We  have launched a full investigation to find out what has really happened, but for  now we really cannot way whether this report is true or not," police spokesman  for Bauchi state Hassan Mohammed Auyo said by telephone.

SECURITY THREAT

Western security officials say growing links between Nigerian Islamists  and Saharan groups such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has led them to  increasingly seek Western targets, rather than local security forces or  civilians.

French intervention in Mali has also heightened the risk to  Western interests in Nigeria, analysts say, and French oil major Total moved its  staff from the Nigerian capital Abuja, where the main insurgent group Boko Haram  operates, in January.

Kidnappings - including some targeting foreigners  - have been rife in the southeast for many years, but the gangs there usually  seek a payout and hostages tend to be released quickly, while Islamist  kidnappings in the north are often fatal.

The hostage-taking at the  compound in the remote town of Jama'are was the largest number of foreigners  seized in the mostly Muslim north since an Islamist insurgency intensified two  years ago.

Ansaru declared itself a separate group from Boko Haram in  January, although security officials believe them to be closely linked.

Its full name is Jama'atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan or  "vanguards for the protection of Muslims in Black Africa".

Ansaru was  suspected of being behind the killing of a British and Italian hostage a year  ago in northwest Nigeria during a botched attempt to rescue them by British and  Nigerian forces. Britain has labeled it a terrorist organization.

It  also claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in December of a French national,  still missing.

Nigerian authorities are still looking for a French  family of seven kidnapped in northern Cameroon and moved over the border by  militants who said they were from Boko Haram.

Additional reporting by  Inusa Jaba in Bauchi and Tim Cocks in Lagos

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